Agouti pattern breeding rules
Oh, the cold that has us socked in here in the Hudson Valley of New York. I have not had a winter like this in 10 years. Two of the rabbits have not endured it well, and MATILDA and DARTH are now living with Irene and her family in New Jersey on a heated sunporch. I couldn't be happier for them all.

The bunnies and their mamas continue to thrive in the cold. One wee one did not make it (she was not growing well before the cold moved in, and I had my doubts), but everyone else is doing fine. They are eating 3 times their normal rations, and twice as much hay every day to keep warm. I visit three times a day with warm water and more food.

I have been overly busy keeping up with the brutal cold and not posting here, but hopefully this will change this week. We have snow here now and it is warmer because of it. I think we are 12*F this morning! Our normal lows have been -2 all the way to -10*F.

Just finished a post I started back on Jan 8 for Lana about breeding with agouti color and I see the Tripod Blogworks have placed it in sequential context, so I am highlighting it here for those of you who check in and read the top date.

Identifying Eye Color
Topic: eye color

Eye color is dependent on a couple of genetic factors. Above we see Liesel, the doe in Liebchen's litter that is staying at Countrywool for breeding evaluation. Liesel is 5 1/2 weeks old, and her black coat and clearly dark brown eyes tell me her genetics color makeup most likely is:

"aa" Self or solid color. The color on each fiber shaft is black. Darker at the tips and fading paler to charcoal at the base. At this point her color is very dark for her fiber is short. As it grows, things will happen and her coat will fade as the intermediate fiber shaft grows long very fast and does not retain the depth of the colored tips of her coat, which will always be black. Her face, where fur remains short during her life, will always be black. I am journeying on a discovery mission to find out if stray white hairs identified on the face of a "solid" black rabbit will lead to white hairs in the coat at a later age. Stay tuned. I will have more info in ten years.

"B-" Black, which is the dominant gene for color in the gene pool. The "-" could be either "B" or "b", but it makes no difference what it is for "B" always shows itself regardless of the attributes of its companion gene. It may indeed be "b", since Liesel has a chocolate brother, and we may be able to determine this after she is bred. Interestingly enough, now I know that Liesel's black mother Liebchen carries a hidden "b" gene in HER makeup. A true black self/solid colored rabbit will have brown eyes IF the "C" genes allow for it.

"C-" All color provided by the "B" genes shows through fully. Well, this is true now, and will be true later, but there are questions in my mind about those silly white hairs in an adult coat. When color shows through fully, then eyes will be brown. There are a number of "c" genes that alter the color expressed making the coat more yellow or less black, and adding a few new tones to the gradations of color from black, blue, chocolate, lilac of the coat. These genes also change eye color, and they work cooperatively when the right combos are present, so you can get light brown eyes, golden eyes, marbled brown eyes, grey eyes, and marbled grey eyes. They are:
"chd", "chm", "chl", and "ch"
I suspect one of these may be in Liesel's background, but they are not expressed right now. They may not ever be expressed, as current genetics understanding goes, but I have my doubts. Stay tuned.

"D-" Color depth expression is as deep as it can be, while allowing for the other genes to make a play on which color gets expressed. Currently the accepted genetic expression of "D" is black, and "d" as the dilute of black, or blue. When "D" is present, eye color is as dark as it can be, So, brown.

"E-" The extension gene. This factor will keep color expression confined to PARTS of the body, or allow it all over. "E" allows it all over, so Liesel, being an all-over colored black rabbit has this makeup. If her makeup was "ee" she could still have brown eyes, as "ee" confines full color to the head (eyes!) and ears, back haunch, tail, and feet, and strips out any black/blue/chocolate/lilac from other parts of the coat, leaving a cream/golden bunny with solid colored extremities. There are a number of additional "E" genes that have been wrecking havoc with my herd "Es" and "Ej". I suspect "Es" is at work. The steel gene expresses itself in partial spurts here and there when the genetics are not quite perfect for full expression, and that may be the reason I am seeing stray white hairs in the coats of my black rabbits. Stay tuned.

The Agouti Color
Topic: agouti patterns
This post is in response to Lana's questions about why there are "rules" for color breeding. Simply put...if you follow the "rules" you will get the best color expression possible in your subsequent litters, and hopefully MOST of the resulting colors will be showable in ARBA here in the US (and maybe elsewhere...I do not show).

To get an overview of color names and their underlying genetics, I like to visit Meg's Website. You will see that there are many ways to get a "black" rabbit, for instance. Not all of them have the same genetic combination, and some of them will be "better" black colors than others, even though they are all called black.

Because of the nature of some of the recessive genes available for color, certain combinations do not look "clear". Because of their haziness, they are often misidentified. Angoras that are bred for fiber contribute to the hazy genetic combinations for oftentimes you are just trying to make healthy animals with great fiber! If you are into dyeing angora, then whatever color comes out is JUST fine for it can all be overdyed.

So...agouti. Agouti shows itself whenever a single "A" gene is present. Agouti patterns are defined as rabbits with colors that show a 3 color "ring" when you blow into their fiber: base color is white or creme or lightest grey; middle color is a darker version of the base color or a light grey or tan; and the tip color is the darkest color (usually). Chestnut agouti rabbits are the most dominant of the color possible with A-B-C-D-E-. Here is Nordic Christopher Robin from Kim Kaslow (where my beloved but gone Nordic Glinda came from, and where her daughter Countrywool Belinda moved to):

Chestnut agouti rabbits have faces that look like North America's wild rabbits, and when they are bunnies, they look just like wild rabbits.
An agouti looks dark and striking when the colors involved are clear. If they get muddy, or if recessives dilute them down to nonexistence, you won't see the rings, even though the animal is genetically programmed to show rings. Sometimes you can see the rings when they are 1-3 months old, but the coat color fades after that and you have no idea. You will see an agouti patterned face with a pale grey coat and no ring definition. This is called a "bad" agouti pattern and leads serious show breeders to define what colors to breed with other colors in order to keep the ring definition sharp and clear.

So my answer to Laura's question is another question...what are you breeding your angoras for for? Rules are guidelines to achieve something specific. So define your goals before you start and you may have an answer to your question.

Hoppy Bartholomew
Topic: chocolate
Meet Hoppy:

This wee fellow's heritage just charmed Matthew, who may be allergic to bunnies, but he is willing to find out after he adopts the little guy. And as he so cheerfully pointed out, "What are allergy drugs for, anyway, if you can't use them to enjoy bunnies?" What indeed.

Hoppy was born to Gretel and Darth in December and will be 4 weeks old this week. Mostly German angora, he is the most curious one in the litter, and Matthew has been a regular visitor at the Bunny Barns getting to know him. Hoppy will be the subject of much picture taking, as even when he moves out, he is only moving a few miles away.

We suspect he has grey eyes, which would make him a self chin chocolate color, but with all the cloudy weather, it is tough to get a sunny (warm) day to make a careful inspection. Whatever color his eyes are, his life will be wonderful as Matthew's new best buddy. Stay tuned for frequent Hoppy updates.

ZWART AT 5 MONTHS
Topic: black

Charlene Schultz and I are watching this boy of hers' grow. We have high hopes for him...his clear, dark brown eyes and deep charcoal coat have the color depth I am looking for, and as long as his picture perfect health continues, so do my breeding plans for him.
Angoras have all sorts of temperaments, and Zwart is a laid back kind fellow who very much likes to schmooze with the shoulder he is on. A complete contrast to Neo. His fur is on the fine side, and wanted to matt a little when he was younger, but this next coat is growing in matt free, thick and lush.

NEO - almost 6 months now!

This guy is ALL male, and as he approaches the 6 month mark ALL he thinks about is where there might be a doe. When I first tried to snap his picture, he was too busy looking for a way off the table and into the doe's barn:

But he finally settled down after 5 minutes:

His color is evolving to a nice buttery shade with hints of darker gold. He has his Mom's personality (nosy...that was Glinda). He has not been brushed in 3 months since I clipped his coat off, and I found a matt behind one ear and a lump of something behind his front right elbow, but that's it. His coat is almost 4", and I will wait until the February Shearing Class at Countrywool to clip it off, as I am looking for LONG angora from this boy.
For a look at him when he was born and as he grew, here are a bunch of former entries you can cruise through:
4 days
5 weeks
7 weeks
There are more if you look further... (he got his picture taken A LOT!)

Chocolate and Black Bunnies at almost 3 weeks

Today was absolutely balmy, and I threw open the windows of the barn so the bunnies could enjoy the sunshine and 45*F temperatures. With Christmas this week, I didn't get time to snap shots of these guys every day, but here they are cute as buttons and huddled together at first:

Then, after 3 tries to get them to sit still on a table for pictures (forget it!) I tried to catch them one at a time as they left the nest to see what the camera was all about:

These little guys are FAST, and scrambled away in the blink of an eye when they didn't like any move I made. I caught them climbing up, out of the nest and across the 6' cage floor to piddle in the same corner as mama. That is my cue to start feeding them, so they now get their own dish of whole oats put out daily. Along with the hay in their nest, this is a good way to get them nibbling on solids that will not harm them. Mom's food dish is up 6" off the floor so they can't get to it for a while yet (maybe another week).

MOVING DAY AND WHAT GENDER ARE WE?
Topic: rabbit gender

I hesitate to use the s*x word because all sorts of spam will come my way, so how does one go about figuring out how many girls and boys are in any litter? How soon can you tell?
The best pictures I have EVER seen for checking out what you have is Valerie Anthony's web site.
It helps to have many bunnies to check against, and if you have a small litter and they all look the same...they all COULD be the same!
At age 4 days, the spots you are looking at are 1/8 inch away from each other, and it is very hard to see any differences. Each day that bunny grows you can tell better, and the ones that grow faster than the others are easier to see first as ALL their parts grow proportionally!
The biggest thing to remember is this...when you depress girls' genitalia, the slit that appears slopes down. When you depress boy's genitalia, the circular opening will pop out and stay round and does not slope "down".
At age 10 days - 2 weeks I can get pretty accurate. For instance, Liebchen's litter looks like 3 guys and one girl. I started seeing differences at 10 days, and they have been consistently growing as I suspected. Gretel's litter is JUST 10 days old and I see 4 guys and one girl. I will check daily until they are 3 weeks old, at which time I generally sell the bunnies (although they do not leave mama until they are 8 weeks old).

MOVING DAY...With balmy 40* temps predicted for the next few days, I am taking this opportunity to move everyone out of the cellar and into the light of the Girls' Bunny Barn. I took great pains to recreate the cage/nest for Gretel EXACTLY as she had it in the cellar, for she is new at this mothering thing and I wanted her to find some familiarity after the move. I kept the nesting material the same. Back when Gretel and Liebchen had been pulling fur the day the bunnies were born, I had removed half of the VOLUMES of wool pulled with this move in mind. As babies soil the nesting material, it is important to keep things as clean as you can to prevent disease, so I had clean and fresh wool to add to their nests as a buffer against the colder temps they are dealing with at night.

CHOCOLATE AND BLACK BUNNIES AT 9 DAYS

These kids are getting heavy when I load them all into their picture taking basket, and mama has decided she is RAVENOUS.

As they are garnering much interest, we have decided to have a COMING OUT PARTY for them. On New Year's Eve they will be in residence at COUNTRYWOOL for the afternoon. If you want to stop by and play with them, mark your calendar!

CHOCOLATE AND BLACK BUNNIES AT 7 DAYS...FEEDING MAMA

Here are the roly poly wee ones. All are growing well and evenly.

I am seeing some interesting color "grey outs" at the base of the ears and the tip of the nose/eyes in the chocolate bunny (and a hint of "blue" in these places on the black one). With my interest in color genetics, these identifying characteristics will be kept in mind as the color grows out. Liebchen has lots of white hairs in her coat, although her face is jet black. These white hairs did not appear in her coat until she was almost a year. I have often wondered if there is a way to identify, at age 6 weeks or younger, a bunny who will also have this. Stay tuned. I am SURE there is an explanation with modifying/ch/steel genes.

Mama had a bad day yesterday. I suspect her milk supply was increasing quickly (these guys are getting bigger by the day) and she was finding a new equilibrium for her eating. The relationship between a doe's milk supply and demand is delicate at times. Too much rich feed and not enough nursing and mastitis rears its ugly head. Not enough feed and the doe suffers AS WELL AS the babies. Books talk about how to approach this and reading them all is a good idea as you contemplate what and how much food to offer. I have found, over the years, that offering limited feed and unlimited hay seems to be the best approach at the beginning. Litter size makes a BIG difference. With 2 kits or less, keep the feed the same and offer unlimited hay throughout. With litters 3 or more, after day 5 or 6, increase feed to 1 + 1/2. By day 10, when milk supply peaks, does with larger litters will be eating twice as much as normal, and sometimes want more. I add extra oats if needed at this point, as well as copious amounts of good hay.

But, Liebchen had never been a hearty eater. She likens back to the English in her background in this way, and so I will offer her extra oats in place of extra feed, which is what she prefers. Oats are lower in protein, but higher in fiber, and she likes to get her calories that way for some reason. I will trust her instincts.
I also feed a 1" hunk of broccoli stalk as a daily treat. Broccoli has good taste, high fiber and calcium. But, too much is NOT good, so be cautious in its use if you try it.